Hoover Dam

Yup. There it is.

On to Vegas.  Vegas baby, Vegas!

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Sandia Mountains

Mountainbiked up the mountains with David and DJ.  4000 feet. Great view of 46,000 square miles of New Mexico.
OK. We didn't mountain bike. We took a tram - 15 minutes up and 15 minutes down.  My kind of bike ride.

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The Babington Family

Spending the night with my cousin David, his wife Lindsay, and their son DJ. David and I spent most of dinner reminising about when we were kids in Perkasie (where he and my aunt used to spend their summers.) At one point I had to appologize to Lindsay for leaving her out of the conversation.

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Route 66

Drove from Wichita Falls to Albuquerque today.  If you haven't made the drive, that is one long flat drive.  Actually, it wasn't too long, just really flat and straight.  Once you cross the New Mexico state line, you start to see a few hills to your right and left.

Albuquerque is beautiful.  Something I've noticed about the cities in the south is there aren't suburbs the way we think of them in the northeast and even midwest.  Glad to be in the Q.

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The Crosby Clan

At the Rangers game with Shane and his four boys. I've known Shane and his wife Virginia since I was in Orlando in the late 90's.

When I got engaged, Shane said I should have proposed by making Melanie my #1 pick in a fantasy draft.

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Friends in Texas

Had a great time with Mark last night.  We went to the Astros game and then I stayed at his place last night.  Thanks for the hospitality!

Just finished having lunch with Dave.  I told Dave he could pick the place, but I wanted a true taste of Dallas.  So we ate at Pappasito's Cantina here in Fort Worth.  Great Tex Mex.

I got about an hour to kill before seeing Shane and his kids for a Rangers game.  Looking forward to seeing Shane, but it's 106 in Dallas today.  Houston was great last night because the roof was closed and they had the air conditioning on.  Not so lucky this evening.

I'll probably have to take off in the 6th or 7th inning so that I can drive two hours up to Wichita Falls after the game.  In the morning, I am driving to Albuquerque to see my cousin, so I figured I would knock off part of the drive this evening.

The Davenport Show

Went to see the Davenport Show at the Ritz Carlton last night- my last night in New Orleans.  I heard this was one of the top jazz shows in N.O.  Great time.

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100 in Houston

Easy drive from New Orleans to Houston this morning. Had a great Mexican dish with torillas, pork, cabbage, green sauce, rice, beans, and a sunny side up egg for dinner. Tasted like halipke.  Terrific.  Plus, the margarita they gave me was blue.  It was so good, I had two.
I'm at the ballpark about a half hour before I'm suppose to meet Mark.  The temp is in triple digits.

Po-Boy

For lunch, I drove to Mahoney's for an oyster po-boy.  I was watching Diners, Drive-ins, & Dives and Guy was there with Emeril, so I figured it had to be good. (It was)

New Orleans has been interesting, but I'm eager to get to Houston tomorrow.

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Another Round

After lunch I walked down by the river to get Melanie a Hard Rock shirt.  I sat right next to a guitar signed by the Black Crowes.  You could tell that a storm was coming.

On the way back it started pouring!  I happen to be a block away from Acme Oyster House. I really didn't have any choice but to duck in for some shelter, another round of raw oysters, and a few more shooters.

New Orleans oyster count: 40 and counting

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Acme Oyster House

I've been looking forward to raw oysters since I knew I was coming to New Orleans.  The guy shucked them right in front of me.  Add a little lemon juice and a touch of cocktail sauce and you got yourself a meal.  I just downed a dozen.

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Sitting on Bourbon Street

It was a long drive yesterday from Louisville to New Orleans.  Mississippi was probably the worst.  There was a whole lot of green and not much else.  I needed gas for about half an hour, but exits can be few and far between and not all of them have a gas station.  In the northeast, we're used to every exit having five gas stations.  Not the case down here.  Once I crossed the Louisiana state line, there were businesses everywhere.

Entering New Orleans was something special.  I was coming in on Rt 10.  It was sunset and you see in front of you where the road raises to start becoming a bridge.  You go up the hill and suddenly you're on this bridge that is straight as an arrow, has no end in sight, the clouds in front of you are purple with this blue-ish haze, and out your passenger-side mirror, the sun is setting and glistening off of this huge body of water.  I couldn't believe how long the bridge was.  It must have been over five miles.  It just kept going with this perfect scene surrounding you the entire time.

I got to my hotel (a block off Boubon Street), took a quick shower, and started to walk the greatest party I've ever been to.  It's not like this was a special occation.  Bourbon Street comes alive every night of the year!  It's like this living thing.  Every bar has a live band playing.  People stand on Bourbon Street encouraging you to enter their bar instead of the 1000 other options you have.  You can get a drink in the bars, or most places have "drive through windows" where you can get a cheap beer and continue along your merry way.

I hadn't eaten since lunch, but all I had was a bowl of Seafood Gumbo at one of the quieter estabilshments I could find.  I sat at the bar with a couple from New Jersey.  The husband was a middle school principal and the wife was an elementary school teacher.  She gave me two of her baked oysters.  Yum!

After sleeping in until 10:00 this morning, I stumbled down to the restaurant in the lobby of my hotel for my first ever plate of shrimp and grits.  Perfect way to start out the day.  I'm off to explore the French Quarter-daylight version.

Jack's BBQ

I'm at Jack's BBQ-one of the greatest BBQ joints in the South.  You walk in and your nose tells you you're someplace special. It's good (especially the ribs) but I prefer Pappy's Smokehouse in St. Louis.

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Wagner's Pharmacy

First stop: The famous Wagner's Pharmacy Restaurant. It is right across the street from Churchhill Downs and everyone tries to eat here before placing a bet at the Kentucky Derby.

Bobby Flay challenged them to an omlette throwdown and lost. Pam is making me the dish she beat Bobby with: "Pam and Jack's Omlette."

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Made it to Louisville

Being that I'm doing so much driving on this trip, I want to take advantage of the time in the car and listen to a few books I've been wanting to read.  Audible.com is great!

The first book on my list was "Outliers: The Story of Success" by Malcolm Gladwell.  It's the book that presents the 10,000 hour rule: In order to truely master a skill, you have to put in 10,000 hours of practice.

Listened to the whole thing (7.5 hours) on the way to Louisville.  Outstanding book.

It dispells the idea that some people are just born great and hard work is the true path to success, coupled with support and being in the right place at the right time.  Bill Gates got his hands on a computer in 8th grade and spent every spare moment programming and was at the perfect age when IBM needed an operating system.  The Beatles weren't that great of a band when they first got together, but for months at a time would play 6-8 hour sets seven nights a week in Hamburg, Germany.  When they were ready, so was the world.

I would highly recommend the book for anyone who . . . well . . . just about anyone.

It Begins!

I'm sitting in my last class at Lehigh for the summer.  The car is packed.  The trip meter is reset to zero.  I just booked my hotel room for tonight in Louisville, KY. 

I'm leaving in 15 minutes.  

Chrysler 200

Picked up the rental car. Disappointed and not disappointed. Disappointed because I wanted a 40 mpg Hyundai Accent.  It's a subcompact, but it doesn't look too tiny.

Instead, I got a fully loaded 30 mpg Chrysler 200.  It is sweet.  Retractable sunroof, satellite radio, and more buttons that I know what to do with.  But I was hoping, with 8,000 miles to travel, to get the super-mpg car.

There are greater tragedies in the world.

One Week To Go

The rental car has been booked.  Dates have been set.  Hotel reservations have been made.  Plane tickets have been purchased (for Melanie).  Friends and family around the nation have been contacted.  Dinners have been scheduled.

Two of my three summer classes are completed and the last one starts tomorrow morning and ends a week from tomorrow around lunchtime.  The rental car will be packed the night before and I will leave from that final class for Louisville, KY with an eye on being in New Orleans the following evening.

What am I looking forward to the most?  All the ballparks I'm going to see?  Reconnecting with old friends?  Seeing wonders I've never seen before like the Grand Canyon and Mount Rushmore?  Eating at restaurants I've only seen on the Food Network?  Driving along the Pacific Coast Highway with my wife?  Or kissing her on the Golden Gate Bridge? 

It's all that.  The whole package.  The experience.  It's doing something I've wanted to do since high school: drive across the country.  It's 8,000 miles of the best America has to offer.  It's the hope that I'll be a deeper person when I get back because of the cumulative richness of the experience.  It's having the stars align to have life present you with a dream opportunity and taking full advantage of it.

Lambeau Field

In looking at my schedule, I'm scheduled to wake up in San Francisco on a Saturday morning, driving down the Pacific Coast Highway with Melanie that day, drop her off at LAX airport that afternoon, go to an Anaheim Angels game that night, and start heading back east.  I may make the four-hour trip to Las Vegas after the game.  From there, I have a decision to make.  I was going to spend an extra day in Vegas, go to Denver for three nights, Kansas City, and then Milwaukee.  Another option would be to go from Denver up to Mount Rushmore, go through the Badlands, see the world's largest six-pack, and on to Milwaukee.  Both routs put me in Milwaukee on Saturday to see the Phillies on Saturday night and a day game on Sunday.

Today I noticed something.  The Green Bay Packers have a home preseason game against the Cleveland Browns on that Thursday night.  Green Bay is two hours north of Milwaukee - certainly doable.  Being preseason, I'll be able to get a seat cheap.  Today i was on StubHub and could get a seat for $35.  On the day of the game, they'll be $10.  So the route isn't a problem and neither are getting the tickets.

The problem is time.  It's two days earlier than I was planning on getting to Wisconsin.  That would mean being in Los Angeles on Saturday night and getting to Green Bay by Thursday afternoon.  I also want to do several things between Los Angeles and Green Bay.  I don't want to short-change my time in Denver.  I've never been there and it seems like a cool town.

It's 37 hours driving from Los Angeles to Green Bay - 16 hours from L.A. to Denver and another 21 hours to Green Bay.  I hate driving so far in one shot because it seems like I'm missing out on a bunch of stuff on the way.  The answer might be to skip Vegas, try to make the 16-hour trip to Denver by Sunday night, stay there Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday nights, take off first thing on Wednesday morning to see Mount Rushmore, go through the Badlands, and drive until I'm tired Wednesday night.  That should leave me less than eight hours on Thursday to get to Green Bay for Thursday night's game.  I want to get there by the afternoon to get the full Green Bay tailgaiting experience.  That would also mean that I would be getting to Milwaukee by lunchtime on Friday for the full three-game set against the Phillies.  Beer, baseball, and German food all weekend baby!

You might be asking "Why is going to a preseason football game so important?"  On the surface, I agree.  Every year I get offered Eagles preseason football tickets and turn them down.  Preseason football is a bad product.  I usually have trouble watching it on TV for more than 15 minutes. 

But this is Lambeau Field.  I want to see all 30 Major League Baseball parks (and hopefully I will by next summer).  Baseball parks tend to have more character than football stadiums.  There aren't many football fields I have on my bucket list, but Lambeau Field is one of them.

It depends on how I'm feeling at the Angels game that Saturday night.  If I'm feeling well rested, think I can get to Denver by Sunday night, and motivated to go to the Packers game, it's on like Donkey Kong.

Something a Man has to do

This morning I was on the wonderful "The Art of Manliness" website.  There's an article on there about driving across the country.  It talks about how driving across the country is something that a man has to do in order to broaden his horizons and know his place in the world.  It's a great read.

For me, this trip started out as me wanting to do stuff that I haven't done before.  After reading this article, I'm realizing this trip is also about developing as a person.

I've always believed in being a well-rounded person and someone that has interests in a variety of areas.  This does not mean that a well-rounded person has to like everything, but it does mean that I want to be exposed to different experiences and have some knowledge about a broad range of subjects.  I don't like opera, but I'm interested in why people enjoy it and can appreciate the art form.  It's just not for me.  And that's OK.  When I go to a restaurant I've been to before, the first thing I look at is the specials or the insert menu in hopes of trying something I've never had before.

New experiences change us.  Becoming exposed to different cultures changes us.  Experiencing nature's beauty and mankind's ingenuity can humble us.

I can't wait to experience America and be transformed into the man I will be after the trip.  I bet he's a hell of a guy.

A Benevolent Professor

The reason I'm leaving for this trip in late July is because I am taking some intensive graduate courses this summer.  These courses run from 8:30 till 1:00 everyday except one for a week and a half.  On the last day of class, a Wednesday, I am planning to drive to Louisville, KY after class.  The only problem with leaving on a Wednesday and not getting to Louisville until the wee hours of Thursday morning is that there are a bunch of things I want to do in Louisville (Wagner's Pharmacy for breakfast, Louisville Slugger plant and museum, stop by Churchill Downs, and the Jim Beam Distillery) before heading down to the Jack Daniel's Distillery on my way to New Orleans before getting to Houston for a Saturday night game.  More on all of that later.

A few days ago, I started emailing the professor that is slated to be the instructor of the course I'm taking right before I leave to see if I could get an early start on any major assignments.  She told me not to worry because the major paper wouldn't be due until a week or more after the course is finished to give everyone sufficient time.  I sent her the following email:

 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
"The idea of working after the course is not going to work for me. I am leaving from class on the last day for a 28-day road trip across the country. I literally will have a rental car packed and in the parking lot. I want to get to Louisville, KY that night. Full disclosure: I was going to ask you if I could leave a few hours early that last day . . . or the ultimate, a homerun, my own personal Pièce de résistance would be to leave a day early because I have to be in certain cities on certain dates and it would make the first four days of the trip more relaxed. In return, I was going to offer to write an extra paper, come over and cut your grass, give free math tutoring - I'm open to other options. I'm sure it's usually a no-no to miss a day of these concentrated courses, but I was going to appeal to your sense of being an intelligent, thoughtful Educational Leader who prides herself in being a creative out-of-the-box thinker that works with her students to reach their personal, educational, and professional goals."

 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
My wife would say that I'm a charmer if I used a line like that on her.  I don't think the word "charmer" fully appreciates the beauty and the depth of that sentence.  If I may be so bold, I think it's some of my best work yet as an evolved bullshit artist.  I'll explain why:

1. It starts out by stating that I recognize the problem with what I'm suggesting.  Later, I talk about "out-of-the-box" thinking, which suggests let's be creative in working together to solve this problem.
2. I've never met this woman.  All I know is her name and email, which I got off of Lehigh's website.  This is only my second or third time emailing her about the same issue.
3. It complements her many times in all the ways a graduate professor would want to be complemented.  My father is the master at telling people what they want to hear.  I'm not in his league, but I got the basics down.
4. The fact that I've never met her and am throwing out all these complements about her personality, which obviously I know nothing about, communicates to her that this email is typed with tongue firmly planted in cheek.
5. Since I used the phrase "but I was going to appeal to your sense of . . . ", it says to her that I had thoughts of pulling a fast one and this is how I would have done it, but I have respect for you, so I'm just going to be honest with you. 
6. Beyond communicating to her that I have respect for her, and more importantly her position, it shows that I recognize that this is a professional situation.  Lehigh University is a serious place and in this program of prepping you to become a principal, how you act is important.
7. You have to know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em.  In trying to smooth things over to miss the final day of class, I think that the plan of attack with the greatest probability of success was this one of full disclosure ahead of time rather than trying to find the right moment after class or during a break to work it into a conversation.  Plus, by putting everyone's cards on the table now, it helps in planning for the trip.
8. It shows her that I have a sense of humor.  Before I hit "send" I pictured her reading this and I like to think that she smiled the further she got along in the email.  This could come in handy during the course.  She has a sense of who I am and what I can bring to the class before it starts.  That might not sound like much for a lot of college classes, but there might only be three or four American students in the room.  These concentrated classes are primarily designed for international students.
9. In this principalship program, I think it's important to be who you are.  These professors aren't just dispensing information.  There's a lot of back and forth.  They're sizing you up to see if you're up to the task of being a principal.  So if you're a dry person who excels in organization, be that man or woman.  In my case, I think it's a man that can control a room and get stuff done, while being able to laugh at myself or the situation once in a while.  In some leadership styles, having a sense of humor can be a great asset.
10. That email was in the mist of me simply trying to get a couple of the assignments early so that I could fulfill the requirements of the course.  I'm not trying to get out of doing work.  I'm just trying to find a way to do the work within certain constraints.  Again, it communicates professionalism in trying to do the right thing and planning ahead.

The email had one more paragraph at the end:

"But I'm getting off the point. Doing work after the last day of class will not be possible due to my trip. Despite taking some other courses this summer, I'd be happy to do some work ahead of time for your class to meet the requirements for this course."

The Benevolent Professor responded that she now understands why I was asking for the assignments early and thought that she would be able to work with me in missing the final day.

Woo-Hoo!  Party all night long!  In leaving one day early, I'm going to have the time to do everything I want to do in the beginning of my trip and not feel rushed or that I have to drive until 1:00 every night in order to see everything.  I'll get to do everything at the top of this email, plus have almost two full days and nights in New Orleans before spending a lazy Saturday getting over to Houston to see my friends Mark and Christy for the Astros game that night.

Things are coming together.

In preperation for my trip, I decided to watch the greatest road trip movie ever made.

While I doubt Melanie and I will see the world's 2nd largest ball of twine, Im sure the rest of our trip will go just like the movie.

27 of 30

Those that know me know that it is a lifetime goal to see all 30 current major league baseball stadiums.  Call it a Bucket Lisk kind of thing.

So far, I've been to 20 of the current MLB stadiums - everything east of Colorado and north of Atlanta, along with Seattle, Arizona, and Texas. (I don't count the replaced stadiums I've been to for the Phillies, Yankees, and Mets.)

It's not just a baseball thing.  It has been a way for me (and my wife) to see America. When we go to a new town, we see a ball game, but we also spend a few days in that city taking all of the sites and ambiance.

Dropping Atlanta from the trip means that it won't be 28 of 30 stadiums after this trip, but I have to keep the end-game in mind.  The end-game is to see all 30 stadiums.

After this trip, the only stadiums I will not have seen will be the two Florida stadiums, along with Atlanta.  That sounds like one week-and-a-half lng road trip next summer.

No Atlanta

After talking with my friend Dan last night, he convinced me that I need to spend more time in New Orleans that an afternoon. 

Under my former plan, I would spend two nights in Atlanta, see the Phillies start a 3-game set on a Friday night before hauling ass down to Houston.  After getting there mid-afternoon, I would have to leave early evening so that I could drive half-way to Houston to catch a day game on a Sunday before Houston hits the road.  It was going to be one of the most forced parts of the trip.

So I decided to scrap Atlanta from the trip. Now, I'll be able to be in Houston Thursday evening, stay Friday night, drive to Houston on Saturday, and meet up with my friends Mark and Christy early afternoon  before going to an Astros game that night. 

On Sunday, I'll drive up to Dallas to see my friends Dave and Shane and their families.  The Rangers have a home game Sunday night, so that looks like a good one to hit.

The bottom line is that if I skip Atlanta, the entire first week of the trip has a more relaxed feel.